SK Gaming

Back in July, ESL announced that the 5th season of IEM would be featured on Eurosport. Today, a press release from Turtle Entertainment (the parent company of ESL) confirms the first details of the "Intel Extreme Masters" program.

The show, named after the tournament, will follow professional gamers at every Global Challenge. From the press release: "Each episode will focus on the gamers and their ups and downs in the tournament from its first live event in Shanghai untill its World Championship in Hanover in March, 2011." Presumably this means a documentary style centring on the players rather than the in-game action.

The series will span six episodes, starting as early as October 2010, and finishing with the Global Finals in March 2011. Each episode will last 25 minutes and will be shown in 15 languages in 47 countries the first time around. The re-runs will be broadcast in 59 countries on Eurosport International, spreading the esports word around the world.

Fans who remember Eurosport's last venture into esports may be wary after CGS flopped so badly. The press release has a lot of the same marketing talk as the defunct American league. But with IEM being into its 5th season already, and ESL's firm foundations, it seems unlikely that this will take the same path.